cd 303
Return of a Legend
"Everyone
needs a 303" - Fatboy Slim
Thing is, not everyone wants to pay £600 for an original, or as much as £900 ($1400) with midi1. If you use a software sampler, would still love THAT sound, but don't want to sell the family, why not try the next best thing.
Why is this sample cd unique ?
When the keyboard modwheel is moved (halion or vst instrument) , it sounds exactly like moving the filter knob on a Roland tb 303 . Nothing else can do that except the real thing. Sliding the modwheel causes different samples to be played back, the higher the wheel value , the higher the cutoff of the sample . With the other formats, velocity is used (from a sequencer) to get different filter levels and totally convincing sweeps. Think of it like a tb 303 / mc 202 special edition of Spectrasonics Trilogy with real analogue, not digital filters.
The Vst instrument works in any vst host software including Cubase, Cubasis, Cubase SX, Logic, Fruity Loops and so on. In Orion Pro, samples have to be reloaded with song.
Here are a couple of short clips from the vst instrument now included with the cd. It was recorded using Cubase Vst 5.1. One has the built in distortion and both have glide, absolutely no extra processing added.
This third mp3 example has had no extra processing applied either. The resonance was at maximum, envelope and decay at minimum......
simple sweep (as wave file - bigger)
Punchy bass in Unison mode
If you want real analogue sounds and real analogue filters, this is the only vst instrument that can do it
The blue flashes allows the presets to be chosen by clicking on them. The patches are organised in such a way that the the lowest resonance is first and the highest last. So operating that control is similar to increasing the resonance on a real tb 303 or mc 202. Moving the VCF control (which responds to an exernal midi device like a keyboard modwheel) sounds pretty well exactly the same as on a real tb303 when paying back a sequence..
The vst instrument doubles as a very useful soundfont player in its own right. It has a full ADSR envelope, unison mode (up to 16 voices) with detune, mono mode, glide, vibrato (with adjustable speed), a ring modulator, a tempo synced double delay and a digital filter (has low pass, high pass, band pass and notch modes) with cutoff and resonance controls
Comes with comprehensive pdf manual.
To achieve all this, a number of samples with different cutoff levels over three octaves (up to 33 per octave making 99 in all) were systematically sampled from the 303 at various settings of resonance, envelope and decay. There are no pre-recorded loops on this cd you can play this from the keyboard like a normal synth.
Of course it is possible to have as many
different 303 sounds and play as many notes as the
computer can handle, which is more than anyone would ever
need since samplers use very little cpu. It can
also respond to pitch and modwheel vibrato. You
can't even do that with the real thing. It also sounds MUCH
closer to a 303 than any analogue, virtual analogue or
soft synth copy in terms of punch, sharpness and filter.
Samples are mapped to modwheel (velocity
with Vsampler) with either 33 or 17 samples across three
octaves (so as many as 99 samples per preset ) at high
resonance giving totally convincing filter sweeps. As the
velocity of the notes increase, higher cutoff samples are
played and the filter of the 303 rises. Lower resonance
presets have 9 or 17 splits. The filter changes add an
extra dimension to dance music, really useful for subtle
funky basslines. Simplicity itself to use. The mc202
samples are laid out in a very similar way. The 92
presets are 2mb, 4mb or 8mb respectively, a very small
amount of memory in a modern computer
Possibly
the most comprehensive dissection of any synthesiser
ever, there are 92 presets, 4964 individual samples, and
436mb of sounds from the tb 303, 54 presets, 2034 samples
and 156mb of sounds from the mc 202. That's 6998 samples
and 592mb in total.
Sampled in a systematic way to provide the fullest range of sounds the synths are capable of. The 303 was split into six zones for resonance and envelope , three for decay. Users can choose sounds almost as if they had the synth in front of them.
Re-Incarnation cd 303 sample cd is available in the following formats
Vst
instrument
Halion
Vsampler (velocity only)
Download the demo HERE (only has one preset, split in the middle)
To buy the Reincarnation cd for only £14 ($23, 20 eur) including worldwide postage,
enter the shop HERE
Notes
Needs a PC, not Macintosh with 128mb of ram, preferably more
1 five socket set plus kenton pro 2000
2 Soundblaster with APS drivers, Audigy or any software sampler which can load soundfonts and switch off velocity sensitivity . Works with Reason, Synapse Orion, Emagic Exs 24, Native Instruments Kontakt, Jeskola XS-1, Creamware Volksampler . Click here to ask if unsure.
tb 303 and mc 202 are trademarks of Roland Corporation
Rebirth is a trademark of Propellerhead Software
Soundblaster and Audigy are trademarks of Creative Labs.
Reincarnation - you'll keep coming back for more
